From Jack the Ripper to Rex Heuermann arrest, violence against sex workers is common

After the arrest of Rex Heuermann, a man charged with killing three women believe to be sex workers, advocates are again sounding the alarm that street sex workers are too often the targets of violence.

On Thursday, authorities in New York arrested Rex Heuermann, an architect charged with first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of three women whose remains were found over a decade ago on Long Island. He has pleaded not guilty. Police say they connected him to the women's remains using DNA evidence detectives matched between his left-over pizza crust and an item linked to one of the women's remains.

It's not news that people who engage in sex work, which is illegal in the U.S. except for in Nevada, are routinely victims of violence from potential clients and the public at large, advocates and a former sex worker told USA TODAY.

"It's pretty much the norm. People from the community really have to watch their back when it comes to, not only people who they serve in their profession, but also people who they come into contact with who they may refuse services to, and then also police," said Jasmine Tasaki, executive director of We Care Tennessee, an organization working to protect sex workers and transgender people from violence in Memphis.

In New York, an analysis from the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center found that 80% of a small group of street sex workers who responded to a survey reported experiencing violence or threats of violence while working.

Thursday's arrest is also a painful reminder that some of the country's most high-profile serial killers have targeted street sex workers, said the ACLU's Gillian Branstetter.

"Sex workers are targets for violence, specifically because the people who are targeting them, like this killer in Long Island, know that they are marginalized," she said. "They know that they are less able to establish safety, that they are put at risk by a society that criminalizes their profession and by extension their existence."

In order to prevent the cycle of violence from continuing, the public must act to "find the humanity of people who do sex work," Tasaki said.

The gruesome killings of Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27, which Heuermann is charged with, are just some of many high profile examples of serial killers targeting sex workers, said Branstetter, who works on the ACLU's Women's Rights Project and LGBTQ & HIV Project.

Sex workers have long been a target of serial killers

Some of the most high-profile serial killers in the U.S. have said they targeted sex workers as part of their crimes.

"It's almost as old as the profession is, that's how old the violence against the people that do sex work is," Tasaki, 40, said. "There are many reasons people use to attack sex workers."

• Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, told detectives in the 1980s he went looking for street prostitutes, many of which became his murder victims. In all, the serial killer raped and murdered more than 40 women, many of whom were prostitutes or young people experiencing homelessness.
• Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, murdered 13 women in England from 1975-1980. Many of his victims were sex workers.
• Bryant Rivera, who was arrested in California this month, is charged with femicide in Mexico and accused of the serial killings of three women. At least one of the victims engaged in sex work, according to a criminal complaint filed in Mexico.
• In an infamous serial killer cold case from history, England's Jack the Ripper murdered at least five women in London in 1888, all of whom were prostitutes.

Violence against people who do sex work can also commonly come from clients who get jealous, Tasaki said.

When a client becomes jealous of a sex worker, they can "vilify or demonize" the person and become violent towards them, she said.

Police can also perpetrate violence against sex workers if they decide to abuse their own power during interactions with people engaged in the illegal activity, Branstetter and Tasaki said.

Former sex worker is 'elated' about Long Island arrest

Over the years, Tasaki said she has been shot seven times, and some of the violence came while she was on the street working as a sex worker, she told USA TODAY.

Besides running We Care Tennessee, Tasaki now also runs Black and Pink in Omaha, Nebraska, which serves incarcerated and formerly incarcerated LGBTQ people.

For Tasaki, Thursday's arrest of Heuermann in New York represents justice, even though it took investigators years to pin down a suspect.

"A lot of times people don't pay these acts of violence or murders any attention," she said, adding that she's "very elated" justice could come for the Long Island victims.

Often, women of color and transgender women are over-represented within the sex worker community in different parts of the U.S., Branstetter and Tasaki said.

Tasaki, who is transgender, said only one of her attackers was ever arrested and police failed to search for many of the perpetrators.

"It feels good and it feels like we are paying more attention to these issues," she said.

Still, Tasaki said, it can be hard to imagine that the most vulnerable sex workers are celebrating the arrest of Heuermann in New York, if they are even aware of it, because it's unlikely they have the time or ability to keep up with the news cycle.

Contributing: Gabe Hauari, Kayla Jimenez and Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY